Hey y’all,
I’m a senior currently stressing out about college decisions. I’ve narrowed my choices down to Clemson and UMN. I really liked the feel at both schools, both schools are comparable in price for me, and I will most likely be majoring in chemical engineering, but possibly some form of bioengineering. My main concern for UMN is the housing situation. I submitted my housing deposit relatively late and am worried about getting placed in Bailey. Since I am an OOS student and will not know anybody going in, I don’t know if I would feel lonely being 3 miles away from everybody else. If anybody has any advice it’d be greatly appreciated!
I think you will find some of the Bailey students also to be out of state students who also submitted their deposits late, so there will be people just like you there. But you are right about being several miles away from most of the residence halls.
FWIW- many of the biological sciences courses are held on the St.Paul campus. In fact, the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering is on the St.Paul campus, so depending on your schedule, Bailey might wind up being convenient.
It’s not ideal to be in Bailey- most of the fun activities happen on the Minneapolis campus. But during school, shuttles between the two run from 7am to 2am, so you are always able to hang around Minneapolis for the fun and get back to your dorm. The shuttles run every 5 minutes from 7am to 6pm, and generally about every 20 minutes during off-peak.
You won’t feel lonely, because there are plenty of students there at Bailey in the same boat. You will find that Bailey is quieter, so you will be able to study and sleep better.
Housing can be super random. I know people who put 17th as their first choice minutes after the application came out and did not get it, and people who put in the application really late and ended up getting it.
Bailey isn’t that bad. It’s bad but not terrible.
If you are really worried about it, try to join a LLC, this will guarantee you not getting a spot.
If you are worried still, go through rush, if you don’t end up joining a house, you’ll meet tons of new people. If you do end up joining a house, you’ll have a place on East Bank to go whenever you want.